DEMOCRATS MAY LAUGH AGAIN

Jon Margolis, Chicago TribuneCHICAGO TRIBUNE

An unusual sound, not new but not heard in such precincts lately, arose here one morning last week-the sound of Democrats laughing.

They weren`t belly laughs, but they weren`t bitter guffaws or embarrassed giggles or forced chuckles, either. They were simply the happy responses of rank-and-file Democratic voters to the banter of their happy presidential candidate.

Michael Dukakis was in a good mood as he finished a three-day Midwestern campaign swing here Friday, and so were the local Democrats who appeared with him and the several hundred voters-Democrats and independents-who came to hear him in Dayton and in Terre Haute, Ind.

This could be the most significant political development of the early summer, far more important than the all-but-meaningless polls or even the increasing evidence of Democratic unity.

A political party that is enjoying itself will not always win, but a party with the blahs will always lose. One of the earliest signs that Ronald Reagan was going to win in 1980 was that he and the Republicans were enjoying themselves while the Democrats were not.

In fact, it has been a long time since the Democrats entered a presidential election without the blahs. The specter of defeat haunted them from the start in 1984 and 1972; gloom pervaded Jimmy Carter`s re-election campaign in 1980; and even when Carter won in 1976, he did so without inspiring joy or good humor among his fellow Democrats.

Perhaps not since 1960, when John F. Kennedy beat Richard Nixon, has the Democratic Party felt good about itself and its candidate, good enough to laugh with him even when he is not all that funny.

So it was that the voters in Dayton laughed when Dukakis did a double-take after the congressman he thought had not yet arrived turned out to be sitting right behind him. Or when a teacher said he had brought his class on a field trip and Dukakis quickly asked, ''Is this a credit field trip?'' Or when a reporter asked how he could pick Ohio`s Sen. John Glenn as his running mate when Glenn was so ''dull and boring,'' and Dukakis shot back, ''Dull and boring, I kind of like that.''

Not that these responses will win a lasting place in an anthology of political humor. Nor has Dukakis, who is still not that well known, won a solid place in the hearts of the politically moderate Democrats who came to hear him in the Midwest last week. But from their reactions-the happy applause that greeted his entries, the attention paid to his speeches, the laughter in all the right places-these voters seemed to like Dukakis well enough and to enjoy being his supporters.

''I like Dukakis,'' said Thea Johnson, a Terre Haute housewife who voted for Reagan in 1984. She said Dukakis ''has a nice way about him'' and seems to be ''on the ball.''

In a presidential election, such an attitude might be more important than whether voters agree with a candidate on a list of issues. A presidential candidate, said Democratic National Chairman Paul Kirk, ''has to show that he can relate to folks.'' One way to show that is to get them to laugh at your jokes.

That Dukakis seems to be accomplishing this is all the more remarkable because no one has ever accused him of being a million laughs. So serious is his usual demeanor, in fact, that his advisers unveiled last week what was probably history`s first political designated joker.

He was George Keverian, the speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, a man of considerable girth and even more impressive irreverence. On the way to Dayton, Keverian, armed with a bullhorn, stood near Dukakis in the aisle of the campaign charter plane and made fun of his candidate.

Noting that Dukakis had a plan to depress an elevated highway in Boston, Keverian said, ''What he ought to do is talk to it. That would depress it. And he could bore the third harbor tunnel at the same time.''

While Secret Service agents and reporters laughed and Dukakis was being interviewed by a magazine reporter, Keverian said of Dukakis, ''He`s got a sense of humor. I`ve never seen it, but I think Kitty (Mrs. Dukakis) has.''

It was all in fun, but there may have been more to it than that. The really successful politicians such as Kennedy and Reagan can make fun of themselves. By unleashing Keverian, Dukakis` aides seemed to be trying to show that though Dukakis may lack that knack himself, he enjoys hearing others twit him.

As Dukakis himself noted, ''This is going to be a long campaign and it hasn`t even started yet.'' Getting voters in a good mood in July won`t necessarily mean much in November. But as he flew home to Boston, he left behind the impression that there are far worse things a candidate can do than to leave his audiences laughing.